Not to be confused with the Glossa Ordinaria written by
Accursius c. 1230 collecting commentaries on the
Roman law Digest.
Medieval scholarly Bible in which the text is surrounded by learned commentary
The Glossa Ordinaria, which is
Latin for "Ordinary [i.e. in a standard form] Gloss", is a collection of biblical commentaries in the form of
glosses. The glosses are drawn mostly from the
Church Fathers, but the text was arranged by scholars during the twelfth century. The Gloss is called "ordinary" to distinguish it from other gloss commentaries. In origin, it is not a single coherent work, but a collection of independent commentaries which were revised over time. The Glossa ordinaria was a standard reference work into the Early Modern period, although it was supplemented by the Postills attributed to
Hugh of St Cher and the commentaries of
Nicholas of Lyra.
Composition
Before the 20th century, this Glossa ordinaria was misattributed to
Walafrid Strabo.[1] The main impetus for the composition of the gloss came from the school of
Anselm of Laon (d. 1117) and his brother Ralph. Another scholar associated with Auxerre,
Gilbert the Universal (d. 1134), is sometimes credited with the Gloss on much of the Old Testament, although only the gloss on Lamentations has been firmly attributed to him. The Gloss achieved a more-or-less standard form at Paris in the second half of the twelfth century.
Editions
The Patrologia Latina, volumes 113 and 114, contain a version of the glossa which, as well as being misattributed to Strabo, represents a later manuscript tradition. There is currently available a
facsimile of the
first printed edition of a glossa, which was published at
Strasbourg in 1480/1[2] which can be found here.[3] There are now modern editions of the following books: Genesis; Lamentations (prothemes and ch 1); Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs;
the Epistles of John; the
Book of Revelation ; and others.[4][5]
^The misattribution was first shown by Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1941).
^Biblia latina cum glossa ordinaria: Facsimile reprint of the Editio Princeps, (Adolph Rusch of Strassburg 1480/81), 4 vols., with an intro. by Karlfried Froehlich and
Margaret T. Gibson (Turnhout: Brepols, 1992).
^Litteral John and Sarah van der Pas. The Glossa Ordinaria on the Epistles of St. John 1-3. Consolamini Publications 2015.
WorldCat website Retrieved 8 March 2023.
^Baldwin, John W., The Scholastic Culture of the Middle Ages, 1000-1300, pp. 72-73
ISBN0-88133-942-3
Further reading
Dove, Mary (1997). Glossa ordinaria in canticum canticorum. CCCM. Turnhout: Brepols.
ISBN9782503047010.
Dove, Mary (2004). The glossa ordinaria on the Song of songs. TEAMS Commentary Series. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University.
ISBN1580440843.
Froehlich, Karlfried (2010). Biblical Interpretation from the Church Fathers to the Reformation (Variorum Collected Studies Series; CS951; Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010) [seven essays on the Glossa ordinaria]. ISBN 9781409403654.
Hutton Sharp, Alice (2015). In Principio: The Origins of the Glossa ordinaria on Genesis 1-3. University of Toronto: PhD thesis.
Klumpenhouwer, Samuel J. (2023). Biblia cum Glossa Ordinaria – Genesis, The Great Medieval Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Academic.
ISBN9781645853268.
Kostoff-Kaard, Jenny (2015). The Glossa Ordinaria on Ecclesiastes: A Critical Edition with Introduction. University of Toronto: PhD thesis.
Matter, E. Ann (1997). "The Church Fathers and the Glossa Ordinaria". In Irena Dorota Backus (ed.). The reception of the church fathers in the West: From the Carolingians to the Maurists. Vol. 1. Leiden: Brill. pp. 83–111.
ISBN9004097228.
Woodward, Michael S. (2011). The Glossa ordinaria on Romans. TEAMS commentary series. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University.
ISBN9781580441094.
Litteral, John (editor) and Van Der Pas, Sarah (translator) (2014). The Glossa Ordinaria, Epistles of St. John. Ancient Bible Commentaries in English. Litteral's Christian Library Publications.
ISBN9781500626280.
Van Der Pas, Sarah (2015). The Glossa Ordinaria on Revelation: an English Translation. Consolamini Commentary Series.
ISBN978-0692538333.
Schoenfeld, Devorah (2012). Isaac on Jewish and Christian Altars: Polemic and Exegesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria, New York: Fordham University Press.
ISBN9780823243495.
Zier, Mark (1997). “Peter Lombard and the Glossa ordinaria on the Bible”. In J. Brown and W.P. Stoneman (eds.). A Distinct Voice: Medieval Studies in honor of Leonard E. Boyle. O.P. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 629-641.
ISBN978-0268008833.
Zier, Mark (2004). “The Development of the Glossa Ordinaria to the Bible in the Thirteenth Century: The Evidence from the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris”. In G. Cremascoli and F. Santi (eds.). La Bibbia de XIII Secolo: Storia del Testo, Storia dell’Esegesi. Florence: Sismel - Edizioni del Galluzzo. pp. 155-184.
ISBN8884501180.
Zier, Mark (2007). “Peter Lombard and the Glossa Ordinaria: A Missing Link?” In Pietro Lombardo. Atti del XLIII Convegno storico internazionale. Todi, 8-10 ottobre 2006. Spoleto: Fondazione Centro italiano di Studi sull'alto medioevo. pp. 361-409.
ISBN9788879880657.
Glossa ordinaria via
VulSearch ! This version of the Glossa is incomplete and is not representative of the medieval text. It is not suitable for scientific work.
Website providing resources about the Glossa Ordinaria and other glosses to the Bible:
Glossae.net